Black & Decker InfraWave Speed Cooking Oven: Gadget of the Week

Black & Decker's InfraWave Speed Cooking Oven is one minor shockwave in the larger market explosion of infrared cooking options. From boat-mounted grills to conventional stove-top burner replacements, it feels a little like the introduction of microwave ovens decades ago, but also like a vast infomercial conspiracy. The InfraWave's "As Seen on TV" ads offer the low-low deal of three payments of $49.99—wait, check it out, they crossed out the price! It's actually $39.99 per payment (plus shipping and handling). As for why it cooks faster than a conventional oven, and browns food better than a microwave, that has to do with the wonder of infrared technology... which is truly wonderful, but let's not get into the nitty-gritty of why. We're trying to move units here, people, not write a Wikipedia entry.

Most Popular

In fact, infrared cooking is at least slightly complex—it's similar to microwaving, in that it uses radiation to directly heat your day-old pizza, hitting the surface of the slice rather than waiting for the air in the chamber to heat up as well (as with preheating in a standard oven). But unlike microwaves, IR heats food from the outside-in, so it can brown or even bake food, or at least keep your crust crunchy. The quick way to describe IR cooking might be conventional cooking, without the preheating. Which means it's slower than a microwave, but faster than an oven.

In testing out the InfraWave, our primary concern was how it stacked up against our office microwave. Specifically, we wanted to solve the central reheating crisis of the modern age, that being the daily massacre of leftover pizza by ruthless, goo-spattered microwaves. We ordered pizza the day before the test, setting aside plain (cheese) slices, as well as pepperoni and vegetable-covered slices. The microwave took 1 to 1.5 minutes to heat a single slice (depending on toppings), and, for the first surprise of the day, the InfraWave took 5 minutes per slice. At least that's how long the pizza reheating preset takes to wind down. But more disconcerting than a more than 200-percent increase in cooking time was the fact that microwaves have completely defined the way we eat leftovers. Like a standard oven, the InfraWave calls for aluminum foil, or regular cleaning of the included cooking pan. Nothing in the pantry, from paper plates to long-abandoned Tupperware, seemed safe to stick in an oven that actually conducts heat. Which is all to say that I was stuck washing that cooking pan about 15 times.

As for the five-minute wait, versus one-and-a-half in the microwave, it was still much quicker than waiting for an oven to preheat and then gradually heat, and the occasional blast of yellow-orange light bathing the pizza slice, as the infrared-emitting bulbs sequenced on and off, was more entertaining than it sounds. Like an Easy-Bake Oven for grown-ups.

And the results were unanimous—everyone in the blind taste test preferred the InfraWaved pizza. It was exactly what you'd expect from a long stay in a conventional oven, meaning not as good as a fresh slice, but the cheese was gooey, and the crust was crunchy. The microwaved slices were definitely edible, but that familiar disappointment rushed in as soon as you hit the cud-like rubbery crust. We also tried toasting whole sandwiches, which worked out well, and though it took 20 long minutes to reheat leftover pasta, the result was much better, with a baked ziti-like crispiness and pieces of sausage that didn't taste boiled.

So is the InfraWave a worthy successor to the microwave? That depends on how much you hate microwaved food, how patient you are, and how often you have to defrost, since IR doesn't handle defrosting any better than standard gas or electric heat. At the very least, it's an excellent pizza re-animator, and a superior alternative to a toaster oven. Personally, I think the results are worth the wait, and if it wasn't likely to get me simultaneously fired and arrested, I'd gladly toss our office microwave through the nearest window.